国际英语新闻:Obama, Castro Have 'Historic' Face-to-Face Meeting

PANAMA CITY—U.S. President Barack Obama, after a highly anticipated meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro, said the two countries "are now in a position to move on a path toward the future."

The two met Saturday afternoon on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, shortly after their back-to-back addresses to other regional leaders. The two leaders' informal meeting was the first since Obama announced in December his intention to normalize relations with Havana.

There had been no face-to-face discussion between the two countries' top leaders in more than five decades.

"This is obviously a historic meeting," Obama said. "The history between the United States and Cuba is obviously complicated, and over the years, a lot of mistrust has developed.” After 50 years of policy that had not worked, he said, "it was time for us to try something new."

‎That would include opening embassies in Washington and Havana, the president said.

Obama acknowledged that deep and significant differences remain between the two countries. He said the U.S. would speak out for democracy and human rights, and Cuba would raise concerns about U.S. policy as well.

"Over time, it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries," the U.S. president said.

As for Castro, he told Obama he agreed with all the points he'd made and said he was open to discussion, but "we need to be patient, very patient.

"We might disagree on something today on which we could agree tomorrow," he said.

The Cuban leader said his government is willing to discuss all issues, including human rights if those discussions are respectful.

After Castro spoke, the men stood and shook hands.

At a late-afternoon news conference, Obama said that his trip to Panama City for his third Summit of the Americas reflected a new era of U.S. engagement in the region.

He said that part of his talks with Castro involved how to promote greater opportunities for the Cuban people, and how access to education could be expanded throughout Latin America.

"We are focused on the future and on what we can build and achieve together," he said.

In response to a question, Obama said his outreach to Havana had majority support in the United States and overwhelming support in Cuba. And with regard to the U.S. removal of Cuba from Washington's state sponsors of terrorism list, he said he wanted to study recommendations from State Department officials "before we announce publicly what the policy outcome will be."

Obama called his talks with Castro — two previous visits by phone and Saturday's personal encounter — "candid and fruitful."

"We are able to speak honestly about our differences and concerns in ways that offer the possibility" of taking bilateral relations in a different direction, he said.

"What has been clear through the summit," he said, "is the unanimity that the leaders of Latin America think this is the right thing to do. They see the possibility of a more constructive dialogue that ultimately benefits the Cuban people. I am cautiously optimistic that, over coming months and years, this will lead to a different future for the Cuban people."

Asked whether his outreach ended the policy of regime change in Cuba, Obama said: "We are not in the business of regime change. We are in the business of making sure the Cuban people have freedom and chance to shape their own lives."

Addresses to summit

In his speech earlier to summit leaders, Castro delved into a long, impassioned history of Cuban grievances against the United States, but stopped to apologize to the U.S. leader, calling him an "honest man" and absolving him of responsibility for the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuba and other actions taken under previous administrations.

"I have told President Obama myself that I am very emotional when I talk about the revolution," he said. "I apologize, because President Obama had no responsibility for this."

The Cuban president spoke for 48 minutes, much of that time delivering a stinging indictment of what he said was U.S. intervention in the island nation and the rest of Latin America.

But he praised Obama’s efforts to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which he said should have never included his country.

The terrorists, Castro said, are those like the CIA operative who participated in the capture and interrogation of executed leftist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who died in 1967 in Bolivia in a failed attempt to lead a guerrilla uprising.